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Headteacher’s Welcome

A welcome message from our headteacher.

St. Joseph’s Catholic Infant and Junior Schools are located just short of 0.4miles away from one another, in the heart of Birtley. The two schools operate under one executive headteacher, one leadership team and a federated local governing committee.

The schools stem from the parish of St Joseph’s, Birtley, which is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle. The parish was first established in 1696 and is one of the oldest parishes in the diocese.

The current church was designed by the well known Newcastle-upon-Tyne architect John Dobson and it was built in 1843. The English Benedictine Community established the parish of St Joseph’s (Birtley) in 1745 and served the parish faithfully until 1978, before transferring ownership to the Diocese of Hexham & Newcastle. St. Joseph’s Infant School was built in 1926 and the Junior School was built much earlier, in 1898.

Historically, the geographical area of the parish straddled two local authority areas, Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council and Durham County Council, before Birtley was transferred to Gateshead Council when the council boundaries were redrawn in the 1974 (although it still kept its postal address of Co. Durham).

The parish of St. Joseph’s is served by three Catholic primary schools, St Joseph’s Infants and Juniors School in Birtley and St Benet’s Primary School in Ouston.

St. Joseph’s Catholic Infant School is located on Mitchell Street – a short distance away from Birtley Fire Station.

St. Joseph’s Catholic Junior School is located on School Street – this was the original school, built in the 19th century.

On 1st August 1961, the cleared site of Birtley Hall was acquired by the Benedictines with the stated intention of it being the site for a new parish Primary School to replace the Infant School (built 1926) and the Junior School (built 1898), so that they could become soon, as soon as funds were able to be found.

In July 2022, the St. Joseph’s Catholic Infant and Junior Schools became part of the DfE School Rebuild programme. At this time, the schools were announced as the only Gateshead schools to have been given a rebuild this round of allocated funding. It is hoped that the project will be delivered by autumn 2026.

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For further information about the history of Catholic education, please view:

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Updated | 28th August, 2024 |

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